Cardinal Wiseman At Maynooth, Ireland, And The Re-Establishment Of The Catholic Hierarchy In England In 1850. (Part One).

Cardinal Wiseman.

Illustration and Text: LIBFOCUS

Saint Patrick’s College, 

Maynooth, Ireland.

Date: 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Finaghy at English Wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

By: Olive Morrin, Library Assistant, Maynooth University.

Nicholas Wiseman was born in Seville on 2 August 1802 of Irish parents. He was the son of James Wiseman (a Waterford, Ireland, merchant then living in Seville, Spain) and Xaviera Strange, also from Waterford. 

He returned to Waterford after the death of his father in 1805, with his mother and siblings. He attended school in Waterford for some years until he was sent to Ushaw College, Durham, England, in 1810. 

Having decided on a religious life, he was selected to attend the re-opened English College in Rome. He took his degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1824 and was Ordained in 1825, and in 1828, when he was twenty-six, he became Rector of The English College in Rome. 

He was appointed Curator of the Arabic manuscripts in The Vatican and Professor of Oriental languages in The Roman University.

Cardinal Wiseman visited England in 1835 and was disappointed with the level of Catholic involvement in public life, despite The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. 

He embarked on a lecture tour, which was very well attended, and attracted some distinguished converts, including Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) the eminent architect who designed the Library and three sides of Saint Mary’s Square in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland. 

In 1840, he was Consecrated Bishop, appointed President of Oscott College, England, and Co-Adjutor to Bishop Walsh. At Oscott College, he became acquainted with Daniel O’Connell and, in 1836, Wiseman founded The Dublin Review, along with Michael Joseph Quin and Daniel O’Connell. 

In 1916, the name was changed to The Wiseman Review but the periodical was eventually incorporated into The Month.

Bishop Wiseman was appointed Cardinal and first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850. 

His appointment was not greeted by universal acceptance. There was strong opposition from both the Clergy and Laity of “the old school”, especially to his “Romanising” initiatives, which included the introduction of Religious Images into Churches and the Veneration of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

Cardinal Wiseman worked to overcome this opposition by striving to interact with his antagonists, writing and giving frequent lectures. In 1858, he visited Ireland for three weeks and undertook what turned out to be a triumphant tour. 

He landed in Waterford in September and stayed with his cousin, Peter Strange. Among other places, he visited Dublin, Dundalk, Ballinasloe, and Maynooth. 

On the morning of 8 September 1858, he arrived at Maynooth railway station, where he was met by the President of the College, Dr. Charles William Russell (1812-1880): “The Professors and the Students, over five hundred in number, in full academic costume, were waiting in the College grounds, and accorded to their illustrious visitor a thoroughly Irish welcome” (Cardinal Wiseman's tour of Ireland) 

He then Celebrated High Mass and, in the afternoon, he met with Staff and Students of the College in the new Library (later re-named the Russell Library) which was still an empty hall. 

“In the evening, His Eminence was entertained at a banquet by the President. Upwards of seventy Prelates, Clergy, and Gentry, sat down at table. After nightfall, the College, and also the Town of Maynooth, were handsomely illuminated in honour of the visit of the Cardinal” (ibid.). 

Dr. Russell corresponded with Cardinal Wiseman and some of these Letters are reproduced in The Irish Monthly [1], also there are original Letters from Cardinal Wiseman to Dr. Russell in the archives of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

Cardinal Wiseman’s last years were beset by ill-health and an estrangement with his Co-Adjutor Bishop, George Errington.

He died on 16 February 1865, aged sixty-three, and was buried in Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, London. He was re-buried in 1907 in the newly-opened Westminster Cathedral, London. 

His tomb was designed by Edward Welby Pugin, son of A.W. N. Pugin, and is the only Gothic Monument in an otherwise Byzantine Cathedral.

The Russell and John Paul II Libraries in Maynooth College hold sixty-four of Cardinal Wiseman’s publications.

[1][1] Dr. Russell of Maynooth. Memorial Notes XIII: Correspondence with Cardinal Wiseman (concluded). The Irish Monthly: vol. 21, 239(May, 1893), pp 263-269.

PART TWO FOLLOWS.